Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/268



"Anciently Miletus was famed for carpets: for of all fleeces the Milesian were the most beautiful, although the Coraxic bore the second prize."

[Greek: Peri tôn Milêsiôn ephan palloi eriôn; Peri eriôn Koraxôn en prôtô de Iambô Hippônax houtôs eirêke, metrô chôlôn Iambôn, Kôraxikon men êmphiesmenê lôpos.]

"Of the Milesian fleeces many have spoken: and to the Coraxic Hipponax has alluded in his Choliambic measure, where he mentions 'a woman enveloped in a Coraxic shawl.'"

Hipponax, who is here cited by Tzetzes, was a satirical poet of Ephesus, and flourished about 540 B. C. In confirmation of his testimony it may be proved, that his countrymen and contemporaries had constant intercourse with a port in the vicinity of the Coraxi. We learn from Pliny (l. vi. cap. 5.) , that the Coraxi were situated near Dioscurias, which, though deserted in his time, had been formerly so illustrious that 300 nations, speaking different languages, resorted to it. As we learn from other authorities, Dioscurias ''was a colony of Miletus and one of its chief settlements''. Miletus also in the time of Hipponax had risen to the summit of its prosperity, and was the greatest commercial city in the world next to Tyre and Carthage. Its chief trade was towards the north and as far as the extremity of the Euxine Sea. Among the numerous Asiatic tribes, which were accustomed to bring their productions to Dioscurias and exchange them for Grecian merchandise, the Coraxi were, as we may conclude from the evidence now produced, a nation of superior enterprize and intelligence, who sent to the shores of the Ægean in the vessels of Miletus their fine wool, as well as the carpets and shawls, which they made from it.

If we had no more exact information than that which has been already cited, we might infer, that the Coraxi occupied part of the modern Circassia, a mountainous region admirably adapted to the breeding of sheep. The Circassians of the present day have numerous herds of cattle and vast flocks of sheep and goats. Their vallies are distinguished by beauty and fertility. A late traveller says, that from whatever country you